The danger of preconceived ideas about God

Today in 2 Kings 5, I read the account of Naaman. Naaman, a commander of the Syrian army had leprosy and he traveled to Israel because a young girl told him about a prophet in Samaria.

When Naaman finally came to Elisha’s house seeking a cure, Elisha told him to go wash in the Jordan River 7 times and he would be healed. But instead of doing what Elisha told him, Naaman got angry because he had assumed that he would be healed by calling on the name of Elisha’s God and having Elisha wave his hand over him. He claimed that the waters in Syria were far superior to those in Israel and if that is all it took to be cured he might as well just have washed there.

Fortunately, his wise servants convinced him to do what Elisha had commanded. And, not surprisingly, he was healed.

I wonder how often that we miss God at work in our lives because we have preconceived ideas about how we think God should work. Much of what God commands in the Scriptures certainly runs counter to our own ideas of how we think things should work. It makes no sense from a human perspective to do things like pray for our enemies or return a blessing for an insult. Perhaps we spend far too much time trying to figure God out, when what we really need to do is just obey Him.